Kenya has launched an ambitious and highly coordinated financial risk mitigation strategy aimed at shielding the economy from internal and external shocks. For the first time, regulators, policymakers, financial institutions, and international partners are coming together under a unified risk governance framework. Dubbed the National Integrated Financial Risk Mitigation Strategy, the initiative seeks to identify vulnerabilities in advance, absorb disruptions effectively, and ensure recovery mechanisms are in place to protect the economy from systemic collapse. This comes in the wake of recent economic turbulence, including currency depreciation, rising public debt, and recurring climate disasters that have tested the resilience of…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
Amid rising trade and geo-economic tensions, extreme weather events, social polarization and disruptive technological changes, the global outlook may seem more uncertain than ever. Yet it is in such turbulent times that entrepreneurship demonstrates its enduring value. Entrepreneurship often thrives in difficult times, prompting shifts in our worldviews and ways of working, creating opportunities for new businesses to emerge and for existing ones to evolve and build new capabilities. Two areas are especially critical for entrepreneurial action and new collaborative frameworks: addressing the climate emergency and shaping global technology governance. Vision and strategy must be anchored in values, ethics and…
Mounting pressure from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is creating widespread anxiety among compliant taxpayers, even as authorities struggle to bring millions of non-filers into the tax net. The tension follows Parliament’s recent rejection of a contentious Finance Bill clause that would have granted KRA access to personal mobile money and bank transaction data. KRA Chairperson Ndiritu Muriithi revealed stark compliance gaps at a mid-June forum: Of 20 million Kenyans registered with KRA PINs, only 10 million file tax returns annually. Within this group, 6 million declare zero taxable income. This leaves approximately 16 million potential taxpayers outside the system,…
Paul Russo, the Group Chief Executive Officer of KCB Group PLC, has been elected as the new Chairman of the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA). Russo’s election was officially announced by the KBA on Monday, 23 June 2025, marking a significant leadership transition for the umbrella body representing Kenya’s banking sector. He succeeds John Gachora, the Group Managing Director of NCBA Group PLC, who has served as KBA Chairman since 2021. The KBA, which represents all commercial banks regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), noted that Russo brings over 25 years of extensive leadership experience in the financial services…
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has raised serious concerns over Sh8 billion allocated to the government’s Hustler Fund in the financial year ending June 2023, declaring it unaccounted for—despite the amount having been disbursed by the National Treasury to the State Department for Cooperatives Development. In her audit report for that financial year, Gathungu revealed the State Department spent Sh14 billion against an approved budget of Sh12.26 billion, resulting in an under-absorption of Sh8.2 billion—representing 36 percent of the total allocation. This discrepancy centres on the Hustler Fund. Appearing before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), chaired by Butere MP…
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has faced a significant setback in its push for expanded powers to access personal data without judicial oversight, as the National Assembly rejected a controversial proposal in the Finance Bill 2025. On 17 June 2025, the Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee, responding to public outcry and memoranda from stakeholders, voted to strike down the clause. The decision echoed a similar rejection in the Finance Bill 2024, where a comparable proposal was defeated following concerns about unchecked surveillance and potential abuse of power. The decision, hailed as a victory for privacy rights, followed intense public and…
Sustained pressure from youth-led protests has compelled the Kenyan government to slash operations and maintenance (O&M) expenditures across public offices by Sh51.95 billion in the first nine months of the current financial year ending March 2025. National Treasury data reveals that O&M costs—covering office supplies, transport, fuel, travel, and repairs—plummeted to Sh751.35 billion, down sharply from Sh969.39 billion during the same period last year. This significant Sh218.04 billion reduction represents the most substantial cut in non-essential spending since the austerity measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago. The drastic cuts are directly attributed to the so-called “Gen Z-induced…
Thousands of patients across five counties are stranded, unable to access essential healthcare services such as dialysis and maternity care, after 1,029 facilities were abruptly locked out of the national Social Health Authority (SHA) system without prior notice. The digital suspension, affecting facilities in Nyamira, Kisii, Mandera, Wajir, and Nairobi counties, means patients arriving at physically open clinics and hospitals are finding their SHA claims cannot be processed. Directors of affected facilities, such as Giftland Medical Centre in Nyamira, report encountering queues of confused patients. “My facility was inspected by KMPDC two weeks ago… Three days later, the SHA portal…
Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP), Africa’s largest wind farm, has unveiled a significant environmental and social impact in its 2024 Sustainability Report. Titled “Beyond Turbines: Impacting Kenya, Empowering People,” the report details a landmark reduction of 574,547 tonnes of CO2 emissions and a cumulative investment of Sh 875 million in local communities over the past six years. Situated in the remote Loiyangalani District, Marsabit County, the 365-turbine project cemented its role as a cornerstone of Kenya’s energy supply. In 2024 alone, LTWP delivered 1,367 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean electricity to the national grid, constituting 10.89 percent of Kenya’s total grid…
An increasing number of young people are turning into night owls, whether that be due to anxiety, phone addiction, having too little “me time” during the day or binge-watching the latest TV show. According to the 2025 AI Era Healthy Sleep White Paper by iResearch Consulting Group, 82 percent of individuals born after the year 2000 go to bed after 11 pm, while the figure rises to 85 percent for those born in the 1990s. While there are many reasons that people may stay up late, many do so knowing full well that burning the midnight oil is harmful to…